Kristen tossed her hair, and Julie suddenly remembered who she was talking to. She scowled at Kristen. “Well, it doesn’t matter if you appreciate it or not. I’m not doing it for you.” Julie stomped away. She went back inside and woke the soldiers. “My brother and I need to get to the ogre’s castle.”
Chapter Seventeen
Cat-and-Mouse Games
Julie knelt on the swan’s back and held on to his neck. Powerful wings pumped beneath her. She glanced back at Boots. He was huddled between the wings of the swan lieutenant. She waved back at him, and he bared his teeth. “Unnatural!” he shouted. “A cat riding a bird!”
Grinning, she turned forward. On the horizon, the sun was rising, sparkling and dancing on the water. It was a beautiful morning in every way. She was going to Mom! She was going home!
The swans skimmed low over the surface of the sea. Spray spattered in Julie’s face. She laughed out loud as the swan burst through a puff of sea mist. She saw Worcester’s Higgins Armory Museum in the distance.
Its steel windows stretched like taffy into thin, delicate silver walls. It towered fifty stories in the air with turrets that reached into the clouds. Its sparkle filled Julie’s eyes. Silver reflected on the blue sea.
The swans glided onto the parking-lot-turned-shore. One of the swans gestured grandly with his wing and said, “Here is the Castle of the Silver Towers.”
Yes, that seemed a better name for it now. Awed, she stared up at the shining turrets. “We used to come here for field trips,” she said. “It didn’t look like this.” It used to be shorter, for one thing, and she was sure it hadn’t had a moat or a drawbridge. Or an ogre.
Suddenly, the castle didn’t seem so wonderful. She remembered her mom once casually mentioning how different the Giant-Ogre family was outside the Wild. Gothel had used her magic to shrink them. Outside the Wild, one of them could eat six steaks for dinner. Inside the Wild, that same ogre could eat a whole herd of cattle.
Boots leapt down from the swan lieutenant’s back.
The swan screeched. “My feathers!”
“Sorry,” Boots said. Not looking the least bit sorry, he smiled with a feather in between his fangs.
“Boots!” What was he thinking? They were their ride! She dismounted and then turned to apologize, but the swans were already back in V formation. “Hey, where are you going?”
The swans didn’t answer. Instead, she heard the captain’s voice across the water, drilling them to fly faster. Soon, they were specks in the distance; then they were gone. So much for their escape route. “Good job, Boots,” she said. Swallowing hard, she turned back to the castle. “I don’t suppose it’s a friendly ogre?”
“You go ahead,” he said, lifting his leg to lick his boot. “I’ll guard the entrance.”
“Nice try,” she said. She picked him up. She was not doing this alone.
Squirming out of her arms, he climbed onto her shoulder. “I want an extra can of Fancy Feast for this.”
Julie crossed the drawbridge to the door. Ornate gold, the door sparkled like sequins. It was ten times as tall as Julie. She squinted up at the door handle, which was the equivalent of three stories above her. “Do you think I should knock?” she asked.
“I wouldn’t,” Boots said, leaping off her shoulder.
Julie pushed on the door. It didn’t budge. “Why not?” she asked.
“An ogre might answer,” he said.
Cute. She rolled her eyes at him. “What would Mom do?” Two days ago, she would have thought she knew the answer: her mother wouldn’t be on a quest. But today . . . who knew? Maybe Mom would lay siege to the castle and take the ogre single-handed. Yeah, right.
Gathering her courage, Julie knocked on the door. She thought her knock sounded like the tap of a small wood-pecker. She knocked harder. “Ow.” She winced and shook her hand, knuckles stinging. She rubbed her fingers and then knocked again.
Thud.
Julie took a step backward. Thud, thud, thud. Door hinges shivered. Gold bits broke from the facade and rained down on them. Julie retreated down the drawbridge and wished she hadn’t knocked. She should have found her own way to Mom instead of following this stupid story. She heard a clank, and the massive door swung open. A Volkswagen-sized boot slammed down in the doorway, followed by a second boot. Julie tilted her head back: ankle, calf, knee, up and up until she finally saw the ogre’s face, five stories above her. He scowled down at her. “Fee, fie, foe, fum! I smell the blood of an Englishmun!”
Julie swallowed hard. Coming here, she thought, was a stupid, stupid idea. “Actually, I’m American. And a girl.”